So, this past Saturday night, while a huge chunk of the comedy business is having a swingin’ soiree in Montreal, there’s a controversy on the other side of the country, in Vancouver. Dane Cook, newly arrived in Vancouver (in town, for the next six weeks or so to shoot a movie, from what we can piece together), calls up the local comedy club (or one of them– Vancouver Yuk Yuks) and asks if he can go on.

Jackpot, right?

Long story short, he gets there, asks to go on before the headliner, gets permission, goes on, and, at the 33-minute mark– they play him off with Elvis Costello music and cut his mike.

We hasten to add, that, from all acounts of the Vancouver incident, Cook was doing well onstage.

Cook jokes about it from stage, the mike is turned back on and he picks up exactly where he leaves off. He continues for another 5 minutes when– they play him off with music and cut off his mike again. He gets pissed, drops the mike and bolts.

All this is pieced together from eyewitness accounts posted on an internet forum for Vancouver comics. There are details there.

But there are larger issues, of course. Issues about professional behavior, pecking orders, club management, etc.

We were at Wiley’s in Dayton recently when Dave Chappelle stopped by– on two different occasions. On each occasion, Chappelle went on after The Male Half of the Staff (who was the HL) and did an hour or so both times. (Needless to say, the crowd was thrilled beyond belief.)

In that situation, we realized that we (the Male and Female Halves) were inconsequential at the time. We would have done whatever was asked of us by the club management. Says the Male Half, “Had Chappelle requested to go on before us, or before me, I would not have protested. It isn’t an enviable position, but it’s obviously of great benefit to the club. Besides, it wouldn’t have been the first time something like that has happened.”

Back in 1985 or so, on his first time headlining his local club, The Comedy Factory Outlet, the club got a call from the management of Bob Goldthwait, who was in town, playing the Tower Theater, with Tom Kenney. They wanted to go on a local club, the club management said, “C’mon down!”

They arrived mintues before the Male Half’s set was to begin. Kenney went on. Killed. Goldthwait went on… died a horrible death. Shit happens. The Male Half picks up the story: “I went on after the both of them and died a horrible, sinking, stinking mess of a death. And I realized that it’s harder to follow a celebrity comic that dies than one who tears up.”

But it would have been a colossal error for the club to have cut off the Bobcat’s mike. (And, in all honesty, they should have let both Kenney and Goldthwait wind it out and close the show, doing lengthy sets.)

And it would have been a collosal error for the club to care one whit about The Male Half’s obligation to headline… or his ego… or the club’s obligation to anyone who might have been there exclusively to see the announced headliner (the number of which was probably small. Give those people their money back, secure in the knowledge that you’ve just had a superstar on your stage who “dropped in” and that the buzz and excitement from such an occurence is worth far more than the admission receipts of two or three or twelve irate patrons.)

Read the whole thing(s) here and here (Note: Up until Friday at 2:48 PM EDT, the second link here was identical to the first… it has now been corrected.)